


Going out with a bang

by whatidontunderstand



Category: Leverage
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bombs, Love Confessions, Multi, Not Actually Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 12:56:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11944695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatidontunderstand/pseuds/whatidontunderstand
Summary: (17 minutes).He has been watching the bomb tick down, every attempt to get out of the ropes has been futile. The rope keeps getting tighter with every struggle, biting into his wrists and ankles. His comms earpiece is in place, however it's silent, taunting him. He wondered whether the team even knew that he was missing.(14 minutes).'Stupid, I shouldn’t have gone off on my own' he chastised himself.





	Going out with a bang

(24 minutes).

Trapped.

Bare walls. 

No windows. 

One light, overhead, illuminating a bomb. Eliot, tied to a chair, struggling to keep his breathing even. He doesn’t know how long he's been in this room, his internal clock out of whack, but when he woke up the bomb had 24 minutes left. It took him far too long to shake off the groggy feeling from the cocktail of drugs he was pumped with. 

(17 minutes).

He has been watching the bomb tick down, every attempt to get out of the ropes has been futile. The rope keeps getting tighter with every struggle, biting into his wrists and ankles. His comms earpiece is in place, however it's silent, taunting him. He wondered whether the team even knew that he was missing. 

(14 minutes).

'Stupid, I shouldn’t have gone off on my own' he chastised himself.

(10 minutes).

"Eliot?"

"Huh?" Eliot's head jerked up, looking around before he realizes it came from his comms. "Hardison?"

"Eliot, oh my God! Your comm just came back online," Hardison tripped over his words, panicking. "I saw you get taken by the marks, where are you? What happened?"  
"I'm tied to a chair in some room. They drugged me, Hardison! I didn't even see them!" 

"Okay, okay. Never mind, we can talk about that later. I don't know where you are, I could only track your phone to the docks, can you tell me anything about the room?" Hardison was clicking away at his computer.

"No windows, a door that’s probably locked from the outside. I can hear the ocean, like waves. Hardison," Eliot paused. "Hardison, there's a bomb."

"A bomb? What?" Hardison yelled, getting progressively louder with each word. "There's a bomb? Why didn't you say something earlier? Does it have a timer? How long does it have?"

(8 minutes).

"It has about 8 minutes left on the timer. Hardison, calm down. It's an electronic one, can you find a signal or something?" 

"Oh, my God," Hardison muttered. "I can't believe you, 'calm down, it's just a bomb with 8 minutes left, find a bloody signal'. Okay, yes, yes, I found a signal, I didn't know what it was before. I don't know where you are Eliot! We'll never find you in time!"

"Don't worry about that," Eliot tried to keep the panic out of his voice. "Can you hack the signal?"

"Can I hack the... I don't know, I can try! It's not that simple, Eliot," protested Hardison.

(6 minutes).

With Hardison muttering in the background, trying to hack the signal, Eliot went back to watching the timer get lower and lower. It's comforting to hear Hardison, years of repressed emotions bubble up wanting to be released. There's a lump forming in his throat, he chokes back a sob. What's wrong with him, he never cries, never lets himself feel these emotions.

'This might ruin them' he realizes. After so many years of being alone, not letting himself get close to anyone, why did he have to change all that for them. 'Because you love them, remember?' a little voice in the back of his mind piped up. And it was true. It only took 3 jobs for him to fall for them, it almost broke him when they got together but he's always been a masochist, so he stayed.

He tried to distance himself so many times, but was drawn back in every time. 

(2 minutes).

"Hardison?" Eliot choked, clearing his throat before continuing. " How are you going? How much longer?"

"I don’t know, man! I haven't done this before, this is new territory. I'm almost in, I just don't know what I'm actually looking for," ranted Hardison. "We are still looking in the vicinity of the signal, but I still don't know exactly where you are! I've got it narrowed down to about 10 warehouses! The others are checking them out."

"Okay," Eliot whispered. 

(1 minute).

"Hardison?" He implored. "There's a minute left."

"What? No! I'm not done, I haven't found what I'm looking for. I don’t know what to do! The others haven't found you!" Hardison scrambled around, trying to figure out how to disable the bomb. 

(45 seconds).

"It's okay," Eliot reassured Hardison. "Tell the team to stay away, then at least the rest of you will survive."

"No! No," protested Hardison, cutting Eliot off. "You don't get to do this! You don't get to just give up! We need you, Eliot! I need you! I've almost got it"

Eliot smiled, he had always wanted to hear those words, not like this however, but he'll take whatever scraps he can get.

(25 seconds).

"Hardison, this is not on you. Don’t blame yourself, please. You did as much as you could and that's okay. Same goes for Parker and the others. This is not on you guys." It was vital to Eliot that Hardison knew this. It was vital that they did not blame themselves. "Besides, I always knew that I had a time limit on my life. It was never a matter of 'if' but a matter of 'when'." He desperately kept the tears out of his voice, as they rolled down his face.

(17 seconds).

"Don't you fucking dare talk like that, Eliot! You will not die! You can't! You're Eliot fucking Spencer, you're invincible!" Hardison threatened, but Eliot could hear the raw emotion in his voice. "We are so close!"

(12 seconds).

Eliot smiled at that. Eliot fucking Spencer. Invincible. He was only ever invincible when he had nothing to lose, he hasn’t had a home for as long as he can remember. It hasn't been like that in years. Since he met Hardison, met Parker, he has not been invincible. He would do everything in his power, and then some, to protect them. That has made him vulnerable. He has been very lucky that no one figured it out and exploited his weakness.

'Huh.' Only he would view love as a weakness.

(8 seconds).

"Hey... Hey, Hardison," he whispered, not even bothering to hide the shakiness in his voice. "I gotta tell you something."

"What? There's no time," Hardison pleaded.

(5 seconds).

"I... I'll miss you," Eliot choked. "I love you, Hardison."

(3 seconds).

Eliot closed his eyes.

He let out his breath.

3.

2.

1.

'Huh?'

Nothing happened. 

What happened? Why didn't it go off? Eliot opened his eyes. The timer was blinking on 2 seconds. What?

"Eliot..." Hardison murmured.

He took a breath. 'Oh god.’

‘What did he do? Why did he have to say that?'

The door banged open, startling Eliot. He squinted at the doorway, revealing Parker and Nate, Sophie a few paces back. 

"Oh, thank God. We got him, he's okay," Parker breathed, rushing forward. She grabbed Eliot's face, checking if he was injured, she was shocked when she felt his cheeks were wet with tears. "Don't ever do that again, Eliot. I can't lose you."

"Okay, as long as you get me out of these ropes," he replied, exhausted, leaning slightly into her hands.

Parker made quick work of the ropes and helped him up, Nate supporting the other side of him. As they got him outside, Hardison drove up in the van, pulling to a stop in front of them. Eliot drew himself up and shook off the support Nate and Parker were providing.

Hardison leaped out but kept his distance, unsure what do or how to act in light of Eliot’s confession. Eliot let the conversation flow around him, not contributing and just staring at the ground. They were talking about what they needed to do next.

“We should go back to headquarters and regroup. Eliot needs to be patched up.” Parker turned to Nathan as he nodded in agreement.

“No, I’m fine.” Eliot finally looked up. “We should split up in case they want to grab one of us again. Then at least we will have someone on the outside.” Had his confession not shaken him up so much, he would have agreed to stick together because there was safety in numbers, but he was not thinking straight.

Loud protests erupted, everyone was talking over one another and Eliot had to make a conscious decision not to flinch at the sudden noise. Eventually the racket died down.

Nathan seemed to have come to a conclusion. “Okay, I concede. We can split up…”

More protests broke out, from Parker and Hardison.

“…as long as we keep our lines open. We will check in with each other every 30 minutes until we take these guys down. Good?”

The others nodded and they all piled into the van. The first stop was Eliot’s apartment and he said goodbye as he hopped out, still not able to look anyone in the face. He made himself not look back as he walked away from the van.

The shakes started up as soon as he stepped into the shower, the day finally catching up to him. He slid down the wall and wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to comfort himself. He wasn’t aware of how long he was in the shower, just that he had checked in with the team a multitude of times and the water had run cold.

Finally, he got out and dried off. He sat on the couch and watched the clock tick over.

1 hour passed.

 

2 hours.

 

4.

 

8.

 

Time passed. Just as dawn licked at the horizon, he heard a noise coming from outside. Parker’s face appeared in the window and when she saw him, she started opening the window and climbing through. She paused by the window, hesitating before coming to sit next to Eliot on the couch. Eliot’s eye tracked her every move.

“You love Hardison.”

“What? No greeting?” Eliot deflected.

“Hi. You love Hardison. He told me. Do you love me?”

“Of course, I love you, Parker!” Eliot looked away. “I just… I’m not… I was never gonna tell him. I mean… I almost died, Parker!”

“Did you mean it?”

“I don’t… I don’t know! Yes? I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.” The last bit was so quiet Parker almost missed it. “I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry, okay. It doesn’t have to mean anything. We can all just forget it, write it off as nothing. I would never want to come between you two.”

“Come between… Eliot! This is the best news ever! We both love Hardison!” Parker just wasn’t seeing what the problem was.

“But he only loves you!” Eliot didn’t mean to raise his voice, but he did and Parker flinched minutely from the sound.

“Now, now that’s just not true, is it?” Hardison had appeared from somewhere, probably using the door like a normal person. Eliot cursed himself for not noticing. “I love you both, equally. I just didn’t know that you loved me until yesterday.”

Eliot closed his eyes. “If you guys are fucking with me…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence for the meaning to get across.

“We would never, Eliot. We love you.”

He opened his eyes and looked at the two people who meant the most to him. Relief swept over him. He was home.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doing a project on fanfiction, what it is etc and my practical is writing some short pieces of fanfiction.
> 
> If you want to, could you leave a comment that I could include in my project.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Also I don't know anything about bombs, just what I've watched on tv. Sorry for any inaccuracies. Feel free to correct me!


End file.
